April Foods Day

Tomorrow is April Fools Day and, coincidentally, a significant day for SIMPLY FROM SCRATCH.

You see, SIMPLY FROM SCRATCH involves a baking contest. During copyediting, my wise editor suggested I include an original recipe as an epilogue. So I set about inventing a baked good that was not merely edible, but delicious.

Those few poor souls who years ago sampled my ill-fated vegan corn muffins, or my chocolate cake the time I forgot to add baking soda, might say inventing a dessert would be an insurmountable challenge for me. But thankfully I’ve made great baking strides since those long-ago days; the mini red velvet cupcakes I whipped up for Quick family Christmas a few years ago were a huge hit. (I also make a pretty awesome grapefruit sorbet, if I do say so myself!)

To perfect the epilogue recipe, I spent hours in the kitchen experimental baking while channeling the spirit of my fearless yet somewhat clueless narrator. (My mom was indispensable during this process. More than once I emailed her the not-quite-right recipe with the subject line, “don’t ask, just bake,” and she did, and gave me feedback — not enough pepper, lime instead of lemon, and so on.)

I’m proud to report that the end result — the epilogue recipe — is delectable, idiot-proof, and lends itself to variations.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting my editor and her colleagues in person. Another excellent suggestion was made: why not post really inviting, tempting photographs of the dessert on my website?

As luck would have it, my friend Dave Tavani is an amazing photographer. Because Dave is also a teacher, he has this week off, thanks to spring break. He and I agreed that April Fools Day is as good a day as any to have a food photo shoot.

So tonight I’ll bake the SIMPLY FROM SCRATCH recipe, and tomorrow I’ll set my kitchen counter as prettily as I can, with fresh flowers and a new tablecloth.

I’m not sure just when or how the photographs will be debuted, but … stay tuned to find out.

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This article has 15 Comments

Wow, Dave’s work is really *good*. Food photography is hard, so I’m happy you’re in such good hands 🙂 (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been grossed out by menu photos of meals I intellectually know I actually like.)

I assumed from the word “baking” that this recipe was going to be a dessert, but from your mom’s suggestion of lime and pepper, I’m guessing not! Can you give us a hint?

Alicia scores a hat trick – great writing, great baking, great photos.
I think that when I get a copy of Simply From Scratch I’ll prepare the epilogue recipe before I start reading so I have something to eat while I read.
You rock, girl.

I was all geared up for an April Fool’s recipe or something! I remember one newspaper columnist on my home paper being asked to contribute to a recipe collection and just sending in a made-up recipe for “potato ice cream.”